Bob Iger

Regarding "Pixar's Creative Chief to Have Special Power at Disney: Greenlighting Movies," Jan. 27: Why didn't Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger just steal John Lasseter away from Pixar Animation Studios and set him up in his own shop? I guarantee it would have cost the shareholders far less than $7 billion. Jon Crowley Sherman Oaks

In a year when Bank of America's stock plunged 58% and the company announced plans to lay off 30,000 employees, chief executive Brian Moynihan's compensation package more than quadrupled to nearly $8.1 million. Here's why: In 2011, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank recorded $1.4 billion in profit after losing $2.2 billion the year before. So far this year, the stock is up more than 70%. So although the bank's compensation and benefits committee kept Moynihan's salary the same at $950,000, he also landed $6.1 million in performance-reliant stock.

The brief announcement that Disney plans to add a Marvel-themed land to Hong Kong Disneyland in 2017 raises a host of questions: Will Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men be getting their own rides? When will the Marvel characters be coming to Anaheim, Paris, Tokyo or Shanghai? And why, of all places, Hong Kong? Many of the most basic questions remain unanswered, in part because the announcement was made by a Hong Kong government official rather than Disney.

As Disney California Adventure reaches the midway point of a $1.1-billion expansion, I'd like to take a speculative look at what Walt Disney Imagineering might have in mind for Phase 2 of the massive renovation project. DCA's extreme makeover was necessitated by the on-the-cheap, off-the-shelf nature of the nearly decade-old theme park that even Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger now calls "mediocre. " Phase 1, which began in 2008, fixes about a third of the flawed park.